Atlanta Hawks: Howard Needs to Dominate Gortat

Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat know each other quite well from their days as members of the Orlando Magic. Which is all the more reason for Howard to bury his chin in his chest because of how he played in Game 1 of the Atlanta Hawks first round matchup with the Washington Wizards.

With much of the attention directed towards Paul Millsap‘s comments, and less than stellar performance following the Hawks 114-107 Game 1 loss at Washington, Atlanta Hawks center Dwight Howard has gotten a pass.

Millsap was quoted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution following the game that “We were playing basketball, they were playing MMA.” That commentary could invite any number of feelings or opinions regarding the mentality that Millsap actually brought to the court.

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To allow Markeiff Morris to score 21 points and have 7 rebounds is not ideal, it was Millsap’s frontcourt mate who had a far more disappointing game.

In a seven game series, it’s easy to overreact or draw too many conclusions over a loss to open the series. A lot of storylines from various outcomes of the game could have been easily predicted and will likely be continuing trends going forward. There was a disturbing turn of events that never should happen, however.

Marcin Gortat proceeded to win a showdown with Dwight Howard. The regular season was merely a walk through to get Dwight acclimated to how Mike Budenholzer likes to do things.

Now is the moment of truth. The playoffs are supposed to be when Dwight takes over, especially against a middle of the pack center like Gortat.

He should not be throwing down vicious slams, pushing guys down, and having the time of his life out there. Gortat produced 14 points and 10 rebounds, compared to Howard’s 7 points and 14 rebounds.

That’s not good enough, man, not at all. This is not the time to blend in with the rest of the action and recede into the night. When someone delivers a good pass to him right in front of the goal, how is a guard able to knock it away? Had someone reminded Howard that he is a Hall of Fame center who isn’t yet over the hill, even during halftime, then Atlanta wins the game.

I expect much more than 2 made field goals over the course of 30 minutes of playing time. He is just spinning his wheels and going through the motions with that. Gortat took a backseat to him when he led the Magic to the Finals in 2009, which he must’ve forgot about.

Howard’s 14 rebounds is satisfactory to the expectations of how much he can control the boards. On offense, though, he needs to get back to setting solid screens and looking for the ball. Atlanta can get the contested 3-pointers any time, what they need to happen is for Howard to enforce his will on the block offensively.

Nobody is counting on him to score 30 points, but his Game 1 performance wasn’t good enough. Millsap’s 19 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist wasn’t one of his greatest playoff showings, but Dwight deserves as much or more of the blame.

Next: Atlanta's Game 1 Mistakes Are Fixable

They will both need to play much better for the Hawks to have a chance. This isn’t the best matchup they could have hoped for in the first round. They are, however, more than capable of beating the Wizards.

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